A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges Americafaces.

A few weeks later, nearly everyone on Gingrich’s staff resigned, and the Gingrich Deathwatch was on. But Gingrich clung on, and over the past few days, has even started to see some momentum. Maybe it was the recent string of debates, in which Gingrich frequently chastised the moderators for their silly games  always a crowd-pleaser. Maybe he’s profiting from the simultaneous declines of Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, as conservative voters look for their latest not-Romney. Whatever happened, Newt Gingrich is, at least for the moment, in a position to conceivably win the race … for thirdplace.

That’s definitely not going to happen. But Gingrich could conceivably separate himself from the rest of the middle-tier pack  Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, and Herman Cain  and end up taking the bronze. That would be about where he started the race at the beginning of the year, but considering his campaign’s early setbacks, getting back to where he started would represent something of amiracle.